page_title: Shlach
section_title: Numbers chapter 15
hierarchical_section_title: Shlach / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Numbers chapter 15
caption_attribution_description: English: The Daughters of Zelophehad. Caption: "The women are kneeling down before Moses. They are asking him for something. They are the daughters of Zelophehad. Their father is dead. They have no brothers. They are asking for a share of the land promised to the men of the Israelites. Moses will give it to them." Illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us: Containing 400 Illustrations from the Old and New Testaments: With brief descriptions by Charles Foster
context_page_description: Shlach, Shelach, Sh'lah, Shlach Lecha, or Sh'lah L'kha is the 37th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fourth in the Book of Numbers. Its name comes from the first distinctive words in the parashah, in Numbers 13:2. Shelach is the sixth and lecha is the seventh word in the parashah. The parashah tells the story of the twelve spies sent to assess the promised land, commandments about offerings, the story of the Sabbath violator, and the commandment of the fringes.
  The parashah constitutes Numbers 13:1–15:41. It is made up of 5,820 Hebrew letters, 1,540 Hebrew words, 119 verses, and 198 lines in a Torah Scroll. Jews generally read it in June or early July.
context_section_description: The Mishnah exempted the meal offering that accompanied the drink offering in Numbers 15:4–5 from the penalty associated with eating piggul, offerings invalidated for improper intent. And the Mishnah ruled that these meal-offerings required oil but not frankincense.
  Tractate Challah in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Jerusalem Talmud interpreted the laws of separating a portion of bread, a dough offering (חַלָּה, challah), for the priests in Numbers 15:17–21.
  The Mishnah taught that five types of grain are subject to the law of challah: wheat, barley, spelt, oats, and rye. Quantities of dough made from these different grains are counted together. They were also subject to the prohibition of the consumption of new produce before the waiving of the first sheaf, and to the prohibition of reaping prior to Passover. If they took root prior to the waiving of the first sheaf, the waiving of the first sheaf released them for consumption. But if not, they were prohibited until the next waiving of the first sheaf. The Mishnah taught that rice, millet, poppy seed, sesame, and legumes are exempt from challah (for though they are sometimes made into dough, they are not capable of leavening), as are less than five-fourths of a kav, or about 3½ pounds (the minimum subject to challah) of the five kinds of grain subject to challah. Sponge-biscuits, honey cakes, dumplings, pancakes, and dough made from a mixture of consecrated and unconsecrated grain are also exempt from challah.
  The Mishnah taught that the minimum measure of challah is one twenty-fourth part of the dough (or in the case if the minimum amount subject to challah, about 2¼ ounces). If one makes dough for oneself or for a wedding banquet, the minimum is still one twenty-fourth (and no distinction is made based on volume of dough intended for private consumption). If one makes dough to sell in the market, the minimum is one forty-eighth. If dough is rendered unclean either unwittingly or by force of unavoidable circumstances, it is one forty-eighth, but if it was rendered unclean deliberately, it is one twenty-fourth, so that one who sins shall not profit from sin. The Mishnah taught that one cannot designate all of one's dough as challah, but must leave some that is not challah.
  The School of Rabbi Ishmael taught that whenever Scripture uses the word "command (צַו, tzav)" (as Numbers 15:23 does), it denotes exhortation to obedience immediately and for all time. A Baraita deduced exhortation to immediate obedience from the use of the word "command" in Deuteronomy 3:28, which says, "charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him." And the Baraita deduced exhortation to obedience for all time from the use of the word "command" in Numbers 15:23, which says, "even all that the Lord has commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord gave the commandment, and onward throughout your generations."
  A Baraita taught that Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi Jose, said that he refuted the sectarian books that maintained that resurrection is not deducible from the Torah. To support the proposition that the Torah does refer to the resurrection of the dead, Rabbi Eliezer cited Numbers 15:31, which says, "Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off (הִכָּרֵת תִּכָּרֵת, hikareit tikareit); his iniquity shall be upon him." Rabbi Eliezer reasoned that as this person would be utterly be cut off in this world (meaning that he would die), the person's iniquity would need to be upon him in the next world (in the life after death). Rav Papa asked Abaye whether Rabbi Eliezer could not have deduced both this world and the next from the words "he shall be utterly cut off." The answer was that they would have replied that the Torah employed human phraseology. Similarly, the Tannaim disputed: Rabbi Akiva taught that the words, "That soul shall utterly be cut off (הִכָּרֵת, hikareit)," mean that he shall be cut off in this world and (תִּכָּרֵת, tikareit) in the next. Rabbi Ishmael noted that Numbers 15:30 previously stated, "
caption: The Daughters of Zelophehad (illustration from the 1897 Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Charles Foster)
exif: {}